Last week I did something very different from my norm. I didn’t write a new blog post on this blog or my business blog… or any of my other blogs. I wrote one for my accountant’s blog, but that’s about it. That in and of itself isn’t much of a surprise, because I’ve done that before. What’s different is the reason I didn’t write anything.
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I got to the end of last week, ready to write a new blog post… when I realized that I hadn’t received a single comment on the previous post. That’s pretty rare; I usually get at least one comment on everything. The last time I hadn’t gotten a comment on a post was the summer of 2015, and that’s because I wrote some specific marketing articles that I removed a few weeks later. The last time I wrote an article that didn’t get any comments… May 25, 2010!
I decided that article needed a bit more promoting. Instead of writing something new, I set that article up for promotion the way I normally set up all my new articles, using the same times and time frames as if it were new. I was on a quest to see if I could get a comment; that article deserved a comment! lol
I finally got my comment and it came from my friend Mitch Allen; it took another Mitch to have my back on a post talking about different ways to promote one’s content on social media. Heck, the video I did a couple of weeks later even got a comment. Since I mentioned it, I might as well show it:
https://youtu.be/4vczJk8OZgA
There’s a general debate by some long time bloggers and content creators as to whether it’s always necessary to create new content. The belief is that it might be more beneficial to our blogs to update old, potentially evergreen content, and release it as new content.
I’ve done that one time on this blog, but multiple times on my business blog. My main reason for not doing it more often here is my belief that it looks dodgy updating content if people have previously commented on it. All of the articles I’ve updated on my business blog had no comments whatsoever… visits, but no comments. It seems fair to do it there.
Speaking of visits, even though that article only got the one comment, it was the most visited article over the past two weeks by a 2-1 margin over the second most visited article. So, I really don’t have much to complain about; if I can handle not getting comments on my business blog, I should be able to handle not getting comments here, right?
Well… maybe! lol After all, if I hadn’t gotten a comment from my friend Mitch, it would have ended an almost 8 year streak. The last time a good streak was ended, it was at Wrestlemania, with Brock Lesnar beating the Undertaker; that didn’t go over so well, did it?
No matter; the question isn’t what to do to get more comments. The question is what’s more important, getting people to read your content or getting comments.
Getting readers is more important, no matter what your reason for it is. Why? Let’s look at it this way:
1. If you’re selling products, do you want comments or do you want buyers?
2. How many times have you been surprised and elated when someone tells you that they’ve read something you’ve written and liked it? How many times after you heard that did you say to that person “why didn’t you write a comment?” I hope the answer is “none”, because I’m hoping you were happy that someone acknowledged reading something you created… and liked it.
3. How much content do you read or watch compared to how often you comment? If it’s good enough for you then shouldn’t it be good enough for everyone else?
I think so. This means I’m good… well, I’m obviously good because I got my comment, which means my streak continues. If you’re having problems getting comments, you can always hope for a friend like I have in Mitch! 😉
I couldn’t agree with you more on a lot of this. And, I’m here to make sure you get that comment on THIS post hah!
Yay! It took another Mitchell to break the string. 🙂
I’ve never said this to any blogger, however, I know you well enough, and hopefully you know me enough to know my intent, but, here goes…
Abd your point is? Lol
You were raised wrong Rasheed! lol My point, or points, are those 3 questions I asked at the end. It’s not exactly subtle, though it is; depends on how the reader answers it. 🙂
1. If you’re selling products, do you want comments or do you want buyers?
~ that’s a rhetorical question.
2. How many times have you been surprised and elated when someone tells you that they’ve read something you’ve written and liked it? How many times after you heard that did you say to that person “why didn’t you write a comment?” I hope the answer is “none”, because I’m hoping you were happy that someone acknowledged reading something you created… and liked it.
~ yeah, and?
3. How much content do you read or watch compared to how often you comment? If it’s good enough for you then shouldn’t it be good enough for everyone else?
~ of course, and like I said…
I hope the implication isn’t that rhetorical questions have no meaning, because they do. The assumption might be that the audience should already know these things, but the reality is that many people haven’t ever thought about these things. Thus, in my mind the points, aka questions, are quite valid.
If you wanted more in this post, I can’t help you with that. 😛
Hi Mitch, those are tough questions, I thought I would go for the sale first but then I thought about it more. Comments are great. They give you a lot of info.
I love getting comments and of course sales are great too – we all need to make some money at this as well 🙂
Thanks Lisa; you’ve helped me give Rasheed a bit of the perspective I was shooting for. lol
I’d love to have more sales, but I’ve done nothing much to get any to this point. It might change a little bit, but it won’t be an everyday thing. As far as the comments, what I didn’t put into the article is that, at least via my business blog, I’ve gone to health care conferences and occasionally had people come up to me and tell me they’ve loved reading some of the articles on my blog and on LinkedIn. These are people I’m not connected to anywhere else, so I’d have never known they were seeing any of my stuff. It’s always surprising, yet I learned long ago to say “thank you” as opposed to asking 20 questions to find out why they didn’t take further action. It’d be great to sell a book or two, but unexpected appreciation is pure happiness.
Exactly Mitch; comments rock, but readers rock as much. Meaning we want readers to soak up and enjoy our content. That is the end goal; consumption. If they comment on it? Not quite as important. I have a few comments on my blog from over the years but having readers to serve and inspire is the ultimate goal, always.
Ryan
That’s good stuff Ryan, and we’re on the same page. Comments are uplifting (real ones anyway lol), but tracking the numbers and seeing visits is even more uplifting… as long as people are staying for longer than 15 seconds. If one’s selling products, even better. 🙂
Hey Mitch, I commented on that post 😉
I have to admit in the early day I craved comments. Never to the extent where I would accept poor or spam comments though. I’ve always had my standards.
These days I’m more about the traffic. If someone leaves a comment, that’s great too but not as important as it used to be.
If you commented on that post it went away somehow because there aren’t any comments showing on it. lol
Both of us were shooting for comments back then but we were also shooting for traffic. We got lots of traffic and our blogs were very well ranked… then G came along and spoiled it all.
Yes there is Mitch, because you replied to it, and I just replied to you 😉
I realize we were talking about two different articles. I thought you were talking about the one from 2010, the one that didn’t get any comments at all.
Now, what’s that they say about assuming Mitch? lol
Seriously, I’m sue I would have commented on that post If I happened by all those years ago.
Maybe there was a technical problem at that time; you didn’t miss commenting on most of my posts back then.